Thursday, April 27, 2006

Ryan Mallett, one of the top quarterback prospects in the high school class of 2007, committed to Michigan yesterday. GoBlueWolverine Magazine broke the story on their Web site after talking to Mallett during his lunch hour at Texas High School in Texarkana, TX. They didn't reveal if he was sitting at the jock table or the nerd table.

The 6 foot, 6 inch Mallett reportedly can throw the ball 70 yards and is smart on and off the field. However, his 40 time is a Clarett-like 5.13, which prompted Brian at MGoBlog to make the frightening comparison of Mallett to John Navarre.

Whether Mallett is more like Navarre or more like Tom Brady remains to be seen. And it's silly to put too much stock in a guy who just got his driver's license and whose biggest concern is who to take to prom. But it's a good thing for Michigan that it can still attract five-star talent, particularly from a place like Texas, beating out Alabama, Florida State, LSU, and USC for a top QB.

Furthermore, this is the highest rated QB recruit the Wolverines have landed since The QB Whose Name We No Longer Mention in '98. I just hope the kid doesn't play baseball.

Seriously, you should start writing articles on how "Michigan is Back". "Michigan is back in the national spotlight", "National Championships are coming this way", "An unstoppable dopplebanger being built in Ann Arbor?", "Michigan's resugance provides eternal salvation" and "Big Blue Back in the Groove?". Just ignore the past few years and logic and everything should work out well.

Although I'm in no hurry to see another Michgan quarterback throw the ball too high or too hard too often and not be able to outrun the pass rush, I think John Navarre was judged a little too harshly.

I've always thought his greatest sin was that he wasn't Drew Henson. He was pressed into service way to soon and once he went through the inevitable growing pains and and was booed I think his confidence was so shaken that he really started struggling. The booing fans deserve their share of the blame on that.

To his credit, he did manage to recover at the end of his Michigan career and had some impressive performances. It'd be interesting to see what his entire career would have been like had he not had to deal with getting booed and blamed for everything that went wrong and basically serving as a whipping boy for fans angry about Henson's early departure.

And did you ever watch him block when Michigan ran the reverse? Damn, he could knock guys on their asses.

What about Henne, wasn't he an elite 11 QB. Joepa wanted him since he was in diapers. If I remember correctly Henne was one of the top three QB in the country and to start as a true freshman over Matt G. & that Clayton guy both highly recruited QB's as well. I think before it's all said and done you guys will all be taling about Chad Henne "our savior" The next two years are going to be hurg for him...just my opinion.....

BPD,ditto on navarre. having to play when he wasn't ready set him back more than the experience helped. he spent most of 2002 trying get his confidence back. he had solid games late in the season (even in the loss @ tosu) and played very well against in the citrus bowl.

he had a very good, maybe even great senior season. he had great games (like ND and Minnesota) and played very well in the two regular season losses, which we lost on stupid special team play calling, not his handling of the offense.

i'm not much for revisionist history, but if we could have figured out how to punt, we'd have beaten both oregon & iowa. in that case, we would have ended up playing in the Sugar instead of in the Rose (we were ranked #4 going into the bowls w/ 2 losses, w/ only one or no losses, we'd have been #1 or #2 in the BCS).

whatever the outcome of the game, navarre's legacy would have been a lot more in line w/ the way he played his senior year.

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